PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD) believes its next growth chapter may not come from selling more products online — but from reshaping how those products are made in the first place.

During the company's first-quarter earnings call, PDD executives repeatedly framed 2026 as the beginning of a new era for the company, one centered around supply-chain control, first-party brands and deeper industrial transformation.

"Our objective is to build another Pinduoduo in the next three years and to drive the transformation of the supply chain as a whole," PDD Co-CEO Lei Chen said during the call.

The language stood out because it suggested management increasingly views the company's current marketplace model as maturing. Instead of relying solely on traffic growth and discount-driven commerce, PDD now appears focused on building a second act tied directly to manufacturing, logistics and branding infrastructure.

PDD Calls 2026 A "New Starting Point"

Executives also described 2026 as a reset year for the company itself.

"2026 marks the new starting point for PDD's next decade," Chen said, adding that the company has "taken decisive steps to rectify our operations, restructuring our internal management and strengthening our team's compliance awareness."

The comments come as China's e-commerce industry enters a far more competitive and mature phase, with platforms increasingly battling over merchant quality, logistics capabilities and supply-chain efficiency rather than simply user growth.

PDD executives argued the company now wants to play a much larger role inside that ecosystem.

PDD Bets Big On First-Party Brands

A major part of that strategy revolves around PDD's expanding first-party brand business.

The company said it established a dedicated company earlier this year with an initial RMB 15 billion cash injection and plans to invest RMB 100 billion over the next three years.

PDD Co-CEO Jiazhen Zhao said the initiative is designed to help manufacturers move beyond what executives repeatedly described as "homogeneous competition" — a cycle in which factories produce nearly identical, low-cost products with little differentiation.

"We will increase investment in the new business, resolutely advance the first party brand business and step up investments in the supply chain," Chen said during the call.

The broader goal appears to be helping Chinese factories move higher up the value chain through branding, product development and deeper operational support.

PDD Signals A Bigger Strategic Shift

The earnings call made clear that PDD increasingly sees supply-chain infrastructure — not just e-commerce traffic — as the next major competitive battleground.

The CEOs discussed improving manufacturing efficiency, reducing logistics costs, supporting rural delivery expansion and helping merchants transition toward more specialized and differentiated products.

That marks a notable evolution for a company once primarily associated with ultra-low-cost group buying and discount commerce.

Now, PDD appears to be positioning itself less as a pure marketplace and more as an active participant in reshaping China's industrial supply chain itself.

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